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French President Nicolas Sarkozy was with Mayor Bloomberg at the Statue of Liberty Thursday to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French. (Published Thursday, Sep 22, 2011)

Updated at 10:01 PM EST on Thursday, Sep 22, 2011

The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, visited the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor on Thursday to celebrate his nation's centuries-long friendship with the United States.

Top New York News Photos of 2011

Sarkozy, accompanied by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, stepped off a ferry and addressed a small crowd of dignitaries in a courtyard on Liberty Island, the statue rising up behind them.

"It is not simply a statue," Sarkozy said in French, according to a translator. "It is a notion, an idea, an emblem. It is for all people of the world."

Sarkozy, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said France and the United States share bonds of blood and a common value of freedom.

He paid tribute to the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks, saying New York was targeted because the city stands for liberty. He said the nearly 3,000 victims are "also the dead of the French people."

Both leaders hailed the statue, a gift from France to the U.S., as a symbol of freedom around the world.

"The statue greeted some of my own ancestors after long journeys across the Atlantic," Bloomberg said.

The mayor said the U.S. should not forget France's support during the American Revolution, "before there was an America," and Sarkozy said his country will never forget the American soldiers who died during World War II and are buried under French soil.

"They sealed the bonds of friendship forever between America and France," he said.

The visit was an early celebration of the 125th anniversary of the statue's dedication, on Oct. 28, 1886.